NZZ Media Group again increases profit with lower sales
The NZZ Media Group has been successful with the strategy it adopted in 2014 and its focus on its core journalism business.
It increased its profit last year by 7 percent to 23.8 million francs. Turnover fell by 3 percent to 442.7 million francs. As the company announced on Friday, turnover is steadily shifting away from the structurally declining print advertising and printing sectors towards income from the reader market and new business areas.
In the reader market, the Group was able to stabilize its revenues against the market trend and generate CHF 155.9 million. The slight decline of 2 percent was mainly due to the merger of three newspapers in Eastern Switzerland and the loss of magazine properties.
Advertising market revenue amounted to CHF 176.3 million. This is 8 percent less than in the previous year. Increased income from digital advertising market revenue due to new offerings and the establishment of the advertising sales company Audienzz had a positive impact, but could not compensate for the 11% decline in the print advertising market.
Printing revenue fell significantly once again to 37.3 million francs. This is 15 percent less than in the previous year - mainly due to the sale of the Appenzeller Druckerei and the closure of the Schlieren printing center, according to the press release.
By contrast, other income rose by 16% to CHF 73.2 million. The new subsidiaries Bindexis and Zurich Film Festival and the design and architecture portal Architonic, which has been included since mid-2015, were the main contributors.
Reducing costs and new offers
"We are improving existing offerings and launching new ones. We are driving the growth of Business Media through acquisitions, among other things, and reducing costs where this does not impair customer benefits. In this way, we are once again able to improve our result", explains Veit Dengler, CEO of the NZZ Media Group, according to the press release.
Despite new investments, total operating expenses fell by 5% to CHF 415.2 million, mainly due to lower costs in the printing sector and Group-wide optimization measures. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) improved by 27 percent to CHF 27.4 million compared to the previous year. The number of employees decreased by four to 1650 full-time positions. The equity ratio remains at 65.7 percent. The Board of Directors will propose an unchanged dividend of CHF 200 per share to the Annual General Meeting. (SDA)
